Powering hydrogen refueling stations with local renewable curtailment – A Lanzhou case study

To promote a hydrogen economy in the near term, in this work, curtailed power from renewable generation in Northwest China is used as the energy source for electrolytic H₂. The feasibility of involving methanol as a liquid energy carrier is also explored considering the relatively high cost and safety risk of H₂ storage and transportation. Four technology routes including both centralized and distributed versions of pure hydrogen and methanol-mediated supply chains for local H₂ consumption at refueling stations are investigated with real-world scenarios in Lanzhou, China. The capacity of existing solar photovoltaics (PVs) is obtained from remote sensing images and a generic supply chain optimization model is developed to compute the minimum levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) for each route. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and safety considerations are also assessed for each route. It was found that the green methanol route is the safest with GHG emissions being higher than expected.